This disclosure relates to on-chip testing for jitter in integrated circuit (“IC”) components.
Jitter is the deviation of a timing event of a signal from its ideal position. Data errors result when this deviation extends past the sampling point at the receiver. A built-in self-test (“BIST”) structure is sometimes included as part of an integrated circuit to test for jitter in components of the integrated circuit. Such an on-chip testing structure allows for internal testing of integrated circuit components instead of more time-consuming external tests.
Some BIST structures for jitter are based on statistical analysis of time measurement testing. These tests calculate the jitter using standard deviation computations with embedded time to digital converters (“TDC”). High accuracy using these converters may be difficult to achieve because TDCs can be sensitive to crosstalk, substrate and power supply noise.